In the new town where I work I have finally found some good BBQ, a place to get liver and onions, and got my library card. All is restored to the world.
I love listening to old time radio on my long commutes every day and just found a fresh trove of old "Gunsmoke" radio shows. I forgot how hardcore it was. The one I listened to yesterday had Marshall Matt Dillon getting trapped in a remote cabin during a blizzard with a couple of hardcases holding a woman hostage. After they beat her up, Dillon tricks one into shotgunning the other, then pitchforks the remaining man. After he and the woman huddle by the fire, and a convenient music bridge, a more expansive Matt Dillon is asked by the woman if he is married. Of course, he is married to his job. So the woman decides to move to town and buy some pretty dresses and get set up in a saloon. "It won't be any worse than what I been through," says she.
I don't care if this was recorded fifty years ago. Matt Dillon still rules!
3 comments:
For some reason I ran a web search for the phrase "killers and spoilers," still one of the best ways to describe a certain kind of criminal element I've ever heard, and found your site. Thought I'd share the following: I was a fan of the Gunsmoke radion show as a kid in D.C., where NPR station WAMU (88.5) replays it every Sunday at 7 p.m. When I was pretty young, maybe four or so (late 1970s), my father, for some reason, had occasion to meet and talk to William Conrad (the voice of Matt Dillon) and convinced him to call our home number and leave a message on our answering machine "in character." I still remember hearing, "Hello, Sutton, this is Matt Dillon..."
Quite a thrill. I wonder if my dad still has the tape....
Cool! I have also enjoyed "Luke Slaughter" "Have Gun Will Travel" and "Fort Laramie" lately.
John
The Gunsmoke radio show is one of the standouts in the whole world of entertainment media. Honestly, I can't believe it's not still played on radio.
If you would have told me before I started listening to OTR about some of the plots of Gunsmoke, I would have sworn you were lying.
I like how the "positive note" on this show is that the woman is (read between the lines) taking up whoring. That's a dark show, man. Dark.
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